Here at VansGB we're doing our best to do business in more sustainables way, which is not an easy challenge when you're dealing with van and minbius hire.
We are closely looking at the possibility of increasing our vehicle fleet with some electric vehicles but there are some unique issues which make this difficult for a smaller hire company.
The main issue comes around to the turnaround time of vehicles, with a standard diesel vehicle from return to going back out again can be a matter of minutes (assuming it's been returned in good condition and doesn't require a full valet). The fuel can be topped up instantly. With an electric van - we need to make sure the vehicle is fully charged before going out again, which can lead to problems for vehicles whch are returned overnight or first thing in the morning. Faster charging vehicles (and a suitable charger) are the way forward here - so we're keeping a close eye on things.
We have been looking at hybrid/extended range vehicles which offer an electric motor alongside a standard diesel engine. These allow the van to be driven on electric but can switch over to diesel to extend the range for longer journeys.
As it stands right now we are still running a standard diesel powered fleet, however all our vans are exempt form the low emission charge in towns like Bath and Bristol. We do our best to keep the fleet serviced and refreshed with cleaner efficient engines.
Vehicles aside, we are doing a lot of make our business as sustainable as possible.
How we're going green...
EV Charging points
In the last year we have installed two electric vehicle charging points, these are used by us to charge visiting EVs and by our staff and other businesses on site to charge their own electric vehicles. (There are a growing number of EVs in the car park every year)
Paperless office
Over the last year we have moved to a paperless system for our vehicle hire. In the past we had to print hire agreements off and get the customers to sign. We've now moved over to a digital system, all the hire details are displayed on a tablet device and the customer signs the agreement digitally and is emailed a copy.
This has reduced our print output substantially, in fact so substantially we have switched to a smaller more energy efficient printer (and of course we use recycled paper!)
Efficiency savings
We have installed LED lighting throughout the business along with light sensors which switch the lights off when no one is in the room... Over a year this has definitely saved electricity!
A green website
This year our website was moved to servers which are powered by 100% renewable energy (solar and wind)
Generating our own power
The biggest contribution in our quest to be greener was to install solar panels on our roof. We've been running our solar panels for over three years and this year we generated over 44,000kW of electricity! Over the course of the year that's more than enough to cover the entire electricity requirements of VansGB, and our sister company WavsGB alone. We share this power throughout Marksbury Business Centre - so we're helping a few other businesses to go greener too!
It's only a start but over the coming year (and years) we hope to be able to reduce our carbon footprint further and increase our useage of non-internal combustion engine vehicles.
